It sounds so promising: a "revolutionary paper tablet computer" that will completely change "the way people work with tablets and computers". Alas, the PaperTab, a concept device lauded today by "printed electronics" firm Plastic Logic, isn’t quite the gadget the company is pitching it as.
PaperTab was created at Queen’s …

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"alas"

Does anyone understand the concept of tech demo? The cables are there because the research is to make a bendy screen, not to make a full final product. e-ink displays need very little power, eventually the electronics/battery could go along one edge, inductively charged. Most of the pieces to do it exist in some form, except for the actual flexible display, which was the whole point of the demo.

I don't think this would replace a big screen for me, but as extra displays that I can take the PDF I want to read while laid back on the chair, or as a great way to keep working notes that I can still cut and paste to my main workspace, I think this will be a great thing when it matures.

Re: "alas"

No point in a bendy screen if you need the rest of the components that are not bendy - not sure how safe a bendy battery would be and a CPU? It is going to be a touch device - if not it's pretty far behind the market now.

When you look at something like an 10" iPad (or Android equivalent) you can see that is the future a lot more than this trying to emulate paper which surely we are trying to get away from?

Re: "alas"

I'd be interested in the duribility aspect

Bending like that introduces repetitive stresses along common lines so I'd be interested in the long term test data but unlike some of the Luddites here I can see a potential future for this. The problem here is too many people are thinking of offices, homes and so on. This is the kind of tech that will find a home in various aspects of industry and possibly education too. Besides nobody would want to try to use George H. Heilmeier's first LCD but through time it ultimately lead to the LCD screens we all use today. Dismissing a technology in it's relative infancy is a foolish pastime.

If this replaces anything you can...

Has Some Promise

Possible usage

These things are going to be great for displaying relatively simple sets of data on top of curved surfaces, which may or may not move periodically. When these screens were first talked about, around 10 years ago, I worked as an industrial design engineer. The industrial machines I was working on had just had a 'sexy', curved cover revamp, and we seriously looked at the maturity of the tech. in order to put a simple HMI readout directly on the curved front cover, rather than having a permanently mounted monitor arm etc.

Repetitive strain and min. bend radius definitely an issue though where the panels are manually handled.

F1 teams could sell the same piece of car advertising space, multiple times, on a time share basis (weight of system allowing).

Re: Possible usage

"(weight of system allowing)."

It wouldn't - nor would packaging / space requirements. And I doubt this is capable of a multiple-axis bend - which requires stretching; there are few if any radii on a modern F1 car that are 'straight' bends.

Plus, the packaging is done down to the millimeter; adding even the slightest shred of weight or thickness would be suicide.

That and the fact that the teams are required by the FIA to run the same livery each race...

Re: Riiiiight

I can think of an application: Dynamic posters for CS Conferences

I would love to have one of these in A0 size that I can put into a standard roll for posters, so I can show off my image and 3D medical volume processing and visualization algorithms on the poster itself. That would be seriously cool. All I would need is to hook it up to the laptop (for the required computational oomph) as a huge external screen. You could even support touch-based interaction.

I could even remove any typos I left, or let viewers supply their own images

behind the curve.

Real uses...

These are ideal to replace those posters people stick on round posts (e.g. Missing Cat), or even proper adverts on round columns. Another use could be wearable screens on t-shirts (or even inside jackets). OR, if they made them big enough (and colour, etc) they could start to replace large projection screens where a curve is preferable...

I've thought of a use

Scores points for using a new UI *enabled* by the technology.

Rather than tacked on top (I haven't forgotten the PoS that was Pen Windows).

Although I'm thinking someone has read "The Diamond Age," along with Xerox's work on "plaques."

The problem as always with PL's stuff is the price. You've now got multiple laptops on your desk. The price/sheet would have to drop drastically. Which might work if PL's idea worked out.

There might be a way to make this work out if the sheets become wireless peripherals of small format PC running this interface. The sheets retain the last thing sent to them on the screen.

Now what happens if part of that image is an icon for a large file? Where does is the underlying item kept and if you were to tap your sheet to a colleagues how would it be transferred? Now what if it was A.N. Random's sheet in another country? How does that work.

I want a roll-out screen like on Red Planet

http://www.flashfilmworks.com/MovieGuide/RedPlanet/red06.jpg

It won't get scratched in your pocket and the electronics to drive it can all be rigid and bunged in the end. Even if it just wrapped round the device, that would be almost as good and leave more space for other stuff.